Cutters secure strong start for 2018 roster

RUGBY LEAGUE: The Mackay Cutters season has come to an end, finishing with a loss against Souths Logan Magpies at home on Saturday

The team were defeated 18-32, leaving the Cutters with 11 losses, two draws and 10 wins for the season.

Coach Steve Sheppard said while he was disappointed with the weekends result, he was pleased with the teams overall performance for the year.

"We were hoping to be a bit better defensively and I felt our attitude was a bit off, but I did like our fight, I thought we kept trying the whole game,” Sheppard said.

"Overall for the season I thought we were above par and managed to make a huge improvement on where we started at the beginning of the year. There's a lot of potential in this group and I don't think we reached the highest level we could have but we'll work on that for next season.”

Sheppard said recruitment and retention of players was a major factor for the club, and he was aiming to keep as many players as possible to be able to start the season on a high next year.

"At the moment we have resigned quite a few of the boys and we are in deep discussion with several others,” he said.

"We've also signed three of the under 20s boys, Kellen Jenner, Jayden Batchelor, who made his debut on Saturday night, along with Jared Maguire who is also under 20s and doing a really good job for Souths at the moment.

"We're very happy with the names we've signed and we do still have a few to go, hopefully we'll secure some more in the next few weeks.”

Looking to next year, Sheppard said the club would be working harder in pre-season and this time would enjoy the benefit of a full-time strength and conditioning coach.

"We're looking for stability and consistency next year, we have a few lessons to take away from this year and I think we've all learned a lot,” he said.

"We will need to take a bit more into pre-season, we were a bit slow off the block and as the year progressed we got a lot better, we were more disciplined with the ball and stayed in the games a lot longer.

"We're looking at the overall wellness of our players, so we're putting on a full time strength and conditioning coach will.

"Nick Swan who did it this year part time did a great job, but having someone full time now will help us as we look to be bigger, stronger and faster for next year.”